Tenders out for water and power providers for PMIZ

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, January 25, 2015 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

MINISTER for Trade, Commerce and Industry Richard Maru informed the media last week of invitation of tenders by the Madang Provincial Government for power and water supply companies to develop independent systems to service the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ).

He said the ability of state electricity provider PNG Power was unreliable for such a vital economic project that needed constant power and water demands.

“Everyday now in Madang we have blackouts- PNG power is not able to meet the current demand for power in Madang- this is totally unacceptable for our country and when you are inviting investors to come and invest, especially when they are going to have 24 hour operations we have to guarantee that there will be power and water supply without interruptions,” Minister Maru said.

“We also have serious issues with PNG Water to provide water to Madang- as a result we have taken a decision to go out on tender and we have now received all the bids and are now evaluating and preparing an NEC submission to take our recommendations to government so that they can formally decide and award a contract to one company to build a power plant in and water plant.”

He said that with the power arrangement the power supplier is set to sell at wholesale the electricity to PNG Power who will then supply to the project area.

“These are very critical utilities that we must guarantee that as a government we will provide,” he said.

“The government is now moving away from providing everything and we are looking to the private sector to partner the government to provide power and water.”

“This will be a very exciting opportunity for the private sector to come forward and partner the government to provide water and power.”

“We will ensure that once the park is ready we should already have these utilities provided.”